1. The Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to a cable harness assembly machine and in particular to a cable hold down and positioning device acting on multi-conductor flat flexible cable fed into the assembly machine.
2. The Prior Art
There are many well known cable harness assembly machines which are capable of sequentially applying a plurality of terminals to one end of a pre-formed cable. Such a machine is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,284. There are some machines that are capable of applying terminals intermediate the ends of the cable to form what is known as a daisy chain. U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,836 shows such a machine.
There is a number of problems associated with these known machines amongst which are difficulties in handling the cable prior to termination as well as difficulties involved in removing the cable from the machine after termination without damaging or misaligning the newly applied terminals. Also, these machines are relatively slow in that they sequentially apply terminals and to only one end of the cable at a time.